Film Review: Batman: The Killing Joke (2016)

Cover credits: Nicholas Cortez.

TITLE: Batman: The Killing Joke (2016)

DIRECTED BY: Sam Liu
SCREENPLAY BY: Brain Azzarello
BASED ON: the graphic novel illustrated by Brian Bolland and published by DC Comics

VOICED BY: Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, Tara Strong, Ray Wise

RATING: 3/4

Despite a legion of admirers including Tim Burton, one person isn’t a fan of The Killing Joke graphic novel, and that is its writer, Alan Moore. He is not too fond of what his work has become, or what his magnum opus, Watchmen, did to comic books in general. On the latter, he says: “[Watchmen] was meant to be something that would liberate comics. Instead, it became this massive stumbling block that comics can’t even really seem to get around to this day. They’ve lost a lot of their original innocence, and they can’t get that back. And, they’re stuck, it seems, in this kind of depressive ghetto of grimness and psychosis. I’m not too proud of being the author of that regrettable trend.”

Regarding The Killing Joke, he calls it “too nasty” and “too physically violent”. While he finds some good what he wrote, The Killing Joke isn’t among his favourite creations. “I think it put far too much melodramatic weight upon a character that was never designed to carry it,” he has said. That might explain what has become of Batman lately.

Alan Moore is also notoriously aversive to Hollywood adapting his work; so much so that his name hasn’t appeared in the credits ever since The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Unsurprisingly, only illustrator Brian Bolland is credited in this adaptation likewise titled, Batman: The Killing Joke.

(To avoid confusion from here on, I will refer to the graphic novel as The Killing Joke and the film as Batman: The Killing Joke.)

But even Alan Moore’s aversion cannot discount the graphic novel’s influence in Batman lore, and is often cited as one of the defining origins of the Joker (even if it is unreliable thanks to the character’s unstable nature). What was intended to be a one-shot story became canon to the main title, particularly regarding the controversial reason of Barbara Gordon’s paralysis that lasted until the 2011 reboot in the comics (if I’m not mistaken). Does that happen in the film, too? Or does Barbara escape this fate? And does the material’s ambiguous ending, where Batman may or may not have killed the Joker, make the final cut?

In a landscape dominated by superhero fare- across film and television- in a year stuffed with six superhero films and a new Batman in the form of Ben Affleck, Batman: The Killing Joke makes for a fun if ultimately inconsequential addition to the genre. At any rate, it is vastly superior to the last few offerings from DC Animation (barring Justice League: Gods and Monsters, for reasons I’ll explain two paragraphs later).

The Killing Joke is not enough to fill a one-hour running time. In order to pad it out and introduce Batgirl/Barbara Gordon (voiced by Tara Strong), an extra thirty-minute prologue has been added. It involves a narcissistic psychopath (foreshadowing!) named Paris France obsessed with Batgirl. He plays a game of cat-and-mouse to lure her into his trap. There’s also a romance between her and Batman (mainly from Barbara’s side) that adds friction to their partnership. It has no bearing on the main plot beyond giving Batgirl a backstory, and yet these thirty minutes are interesting enough to warrant a standalone film.

Therein lies the problem: when played on the screen, The Killing Joke material isn’t that compelling- and this is considering that veteran writer Brian Azzarello’s script has adapted Alan Moore’s graphic novel almost word-for-word and beat for beat. A little sluggish and still misogynistic, Batman: The Killing Joke can’t help but feel a tad bit ugly for the remainder of the film. The animation, too, is disappointing. It is too clean and too cheap-looking. It pales in contrast to Brian Bolland’s phenomenal artwork for the comic. Even though the latter might have been impossible to adapt, the animators could have at least taken the trouble to add depth- whatever happened to the animation prevalent in the nineties cartoons?

But then, with Bruce Timm as executive producer- one of the brains behind the excellent Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series and the Justice League animated series- Batman: The Killing Joke maintains the excellent standards present in last year’s Justice League: Gods and Monsters, which he was also involved in (refer to two paragraphs earlier).

The real highlight is Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill reprising their iconic roles as Batman and the Joker respectively. Given the countless actors who’ve played and voiced these characters, these two have made their stamp and defined them as their own. Mark Hamill especially delivers the most nuanced and terrifying performance of the Joker yet, while Kevin Conroy proves yet again why he is the Batman. Tara Strong convinces us of the complex emotions that Barbara undergoes. She needs to be given a Batgirl solo film of her own, especially with the mid-credits tag teasing her future as Oracle.

And speaking of endings: does Batman kill the Joker as is suggested in the comics closing panels? The ambiguity carries over. The fate of the Joker is left to the imagination of the viewer once again.

Once thing is for certain: despite the R-rating and the grim nature of the film, Batman’s future of Batman has never looked brighter. And as long as Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill and Bruce Timm continue to make more Batman films, there is no downside. There never has been.

Which character will die in Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens?

It could be a random coincidence but in the first installment of both the original and prequel Star Wars trilogies, a major character died. In Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, it was Obi-Wan Kenobi (Sir Alec Guinness). In Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, it was Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson).

This December, a new trilogy kicks off with Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens and the question is: will a major character get killed off?

Answer: YES.

Who? Let’s speculate!

Now, the aforementioned deaths were significantly important in propelling the overall stories in the respective trilogies. Obi-Wan’s death forced Luke to take up the Jedi Knight mantle; Qui-Gon’s death promotes Obi-Wan from apprentice to Jedi Knight, leading him to take Anakin Skywalker as apprentice. You know the rest.

So the obvious train of thought would be: “Two Jedi Knights? It’s pretty obvious who’ll die in Episode VII!” Luke Skywalker, right?

Or not?

Have you noticed that in both films, Liam Neeson and Alec Guinness were arguably the most recognised cast members with a significant role to play (Samuel L. Jackson in Phantom Menace doesn’t count because his role wasn’t as significant)? Game of Thrones might have popularised the trend of bumping off your main or important characters but Star Wars was really doing that long before. Likewise, who is the most recognised cast member in The Force Awakens? Nope, it isn’t Mark Hamill (sorry, Mark, you’ll always be the Joker to me, though!).

It’s Harrison Ford.

But Han Solo isn’t a Jedi Knight, so what gives? Why would he be the most likely candidate to die?

The answer might lie all the way back during production of Return of the Jedi 22 years ago. Harrison Ford, not contracted to the sequels, suggested that Han Solo be killed during the movie to create a bigger impact in the story. Lawrence Kasdan, one of the screenwriters, agreed. But George Lucas was completely against it.

Know who’s involved in script duties for Episode VII? Lawrence Kasdan.

Killing off Han Solo would undeniably send shockwaves throughout the Star Wars community. He is arguably one of the most beloved characters in the franchise and his death would make it quite clear that nobody is safe, even if you’re played by Harrison Ford. It makes sense from a narrative perspective compared to killing off Luke because there is reason to believe that he will possibly be needed around a little longer to train a new Jedi Knight. Also, if rumours are to be believed that Luke has gone into exile post-Return of the Jedi, the death of his friend might be what prompts him to- pardon the pun- return to the fray.

But all this train of thought came from the emergence of this one rumour linked here: Star Wars 7: Major Character & Twist Spoilers Revealed.

Just another day in Speculate Ville. What are your thoughts, reader? Will Han Solo be the next major character to die, possibly at the hands of this nefarious villain?

Potential Directors for the new Spider-Man Movie (2017)

In case you haven’t heard yet: Spider-Man moved into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

That’s right, Peter Parker will be joining the fight against evil possibly alongside chums Iron Man, Captain America and Thor (provided they don’t die before then) and it is not impossible to imagine Spider-Man leading the Avengers (rumoured to be an entirely new line up) in the fight against Thanos in The Avengers: Infinity Wars – Part 1.

But before that happens, he will get his solo film in 2017.

Given that this new announcement has shuffled the Phase 3 line up, the Spider-Man movie taking the spot given to Thor: Ragnarok and bumping Black Panther and Captain Marvel to slots after Infinity Wars – Part 1 while jettisoning The Inhumans entirely AFTER Infinity Wars – Part 2 (presumably, Inhumans will start Phase 4), it is apparent that Spider-Man will be a key component in the MCU.

Which begs the question: who should direct this film?

Two— actually, three— people we can rule out are Joss Whedon and the Russo brothers. The former seems eager to move on to new projects; the latter are busy prepping for Civil War while rumoured to be taking directing duties for Avengers 3. So they are a “no”.

With only two years left to get the Spider-Man movie swinging into theatres, pre-production and casting has to get underway quickly.

So without further ado, I compiled a list of possible directors who could direct the new Spider-Man movie:

• Drew Goddard

This man has the highest chance of landing the gig. Why?

Drew Goddard was slated to work as showrunner for the Netflix Daredevil series before leaving to work on a Sinister Six film. So: a) he is familiar with Marvel Studios (and hopefully parted ways amicably); b) Sony might be keen to make amends for Sinister Six falling apart; c) he will always be vouched for by Joss Whedon, with whom he has collaborated in the past as far back as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and most recently in the 2012 excellent film, The Cabin in the Woods. Man’s got the chops and I’ve always maintained that Amazing Spider-Man 2 wouldn’t have been a train-wreck if he had written the script instead.

• Phil Lord and Christopher Miller

In the wake of the Sony hacks, one rumour that went around was that the studio wanting The Lego Movie directors to direct an animated Spider-Man film. Having directed four great films (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, 21 Jump Street & 22 Jump Street) and yet to break their hot streak, not to mention having a good working partnership with Sony, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are ideal candidates to work their magic with this movie— especially given that an integral part of Spider-Man is the humour.

• Jon Favreau

Why not bring back the man who kick-started the MCU in the first place and turned Iron Man into a lucractive franchise? Jon Favreau hasn’t made a good big-budgeted movie since Iron Man and Spider-Man needs new life breathed into it after the last lackluster film. And like Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, Jon Favreau has a background in comedy which could be well-suited for Spider-Man.

• Damien Chazelle

Given that studios like to hire directors with only a short film or one small-budget film on their resume to helm big-budgeted features, Damien Chazelle would be excellent for the task. I would have nominated Gareth Edwards or Josh Trank, but the former is busy with a Star Wars spin-off and Trank is wrapping up work on the Fantastic Four reboot and jumping straight into another Star Wars spin-off. Damien Chazelle also has good credentials, having turned Whiplash into one of the best movies of 2014, which is nominated for 5 Oscars including one for him for Best Adapted Screenplay.

• Edgar Wright

Now this is wishful thinking— but hey, why not mend bridges and heal old wounds by hiring Edgar Wright to make Spider-Man? Need I even mention why he’d be a great choice? Come on, Marvel: do the Wright thing! And get Nick Frost and Simon Pegg to cameo while you’re at it!

• Kathryn Bigelow

For those thinking, “But she would be better to direct Captain Marvel since Captain Marvel is a female superhero!”— you sexist pigs. Kathryn Bigelow would be a good choice for a Spider-Man movie irrespective of gender or that of the character’s. Not to mention, she’s won an Oscar for directing and makes taut, tense films that would work beautifully for Spider-Man. Besides, what better way to market the third launching of a Spider-Man movie in the last decade than having “From the Academy Award-winning director of The Hurt Locker” on the posters and other forms of advertising?

• Mel Gibson

If Edgar Wright is wishful thinking, then this is probably asking for a miracle. But hear me out: on all the directors on this list, only Mel Gibson and Kathryn Bigelow have won Oscars for directing. Furthermore, I believe Robert Downey, Jr. still owes the man for helping him get his career back on track after Gibson paid for Downey’s insurance bond for the movie The Singing Detective. Now RDJ has probably been trying to get Marvel Studios to let him direct a movie for ages but to no avail. Spider-Man could be the place to make a directorial comeback. Give the man a chance, Marvel. The guy has the credentials to make a good film. FREEEEEEEDOM!

• Marc Webb

“Say what now?!” I hear you exclaim.

Let’s be clear— Marc Webb wasn’t entirely responsible for the failure of the Amazing Spider-Man movies (I enjoyed the first one more than the 2002 film, actually). And he still probably has that contract saying “I O U 1 Spider-Man Movie”. If the contract is still valid, he could fulfill the terms with this movie. Marc Webb is a good filmmaker, remember (500) Days of Summer? He just got walked over by all the high-ups involved who wanted to mould the Spider-Man movies to their crazy whims without an ounce of creativity in their bones.

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Who do you think would be a good choice of director for the new Spider-Man film, Dear Reader? Leave your comments below

Could James Spader get an Oscar® nomination for Avengers: Age of Ultron?

[WARNING: the following is pure speculation drawn from incomplete facts and opinions.]

In the past weeks, Marvel Studios unveiled two trailers for Avengers: Age of Ultron and they are taking the world by storm.

Ecstatic though the footage of the Hulkbuster in action, the Avengers party and hilarious attempts to lift Thor’s hammer might be, the highlight is the first glimpse of Ultron, the film’s titular villain.

Played in mo-cap and voiced by James Spader, Ultron appears poised to take the crown for Best Comic Book Villain when the film opens in May 2015— if for anything, turning the beloved Pinocchio song, “I’ve Got No Strings On Me”, into a sinister soundtrack over scenes of havoc. It is impossible to watch the trailers and not shiver when Ultron announces, “Look. There are no strings on me.”

The second trailer opened with a cold chuckle, followed by a monologue from Ultron at his debut in the Avengers tower. The last time a Comic Book villain made such a memorable foreboding impression in a TRAILER was the late Heath Ledger in the first trailers for The Dark Knight. And both he and Ultron have uber-sinister laughs in voice-overs.

Which begs an interesting question: can James Spader’s performance nab an Oscar nomination?

It’s tough to say. The Academy is rarely ever impressed by comic book movies to consider them for the big prizes (note: snubbing The Dark Knight for Best Picture). Heath Ledger’s posthumous win for Best Supporting Actor is the exception and well deserved; but you have to wonder if it would have been the same clean sweep win had he not died before the film’s release (personal answer: yes, certainly). So unless James Spader dies between now and then— and let’s hope not! – it is impossible to know.

On the other hand, the Blacklist and Boston Legal alum’s credentials are excellent. James Spader is a riveting and phenomenal actor. With Joss Whedon writing and directing Age of Ultron, it is a given that the film will be solid in terms of story, character and dialogue— something for James Spader to take full advantage. And Ultron’s prominence in comic lore as one of the team’s (and Marvel universe’s) deadliest foes lends rich material and inspiration to draw from— just as much it did for Heath Ledger.

The odds are already stacking in James Spader’s favour.

And let’s be honest: he deserves an Oscar simply for turning a classic childhood film into the stuff of nightmares.

Ways to save the Spider-Man film franchise – Part 2

Previously in Ways to save the Spider-Man film franchise – Part 1, I began a discussion involving ways to rejuvenate the Spider-Man film franchise. My first suggestion was to: Adapt some good storylines from Spider-Man lore.

Without further ado, here’s our next suggestion.

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SUGGESTION 2: Parallel universes

DC Comics and Marvel Comics love to use the plot devices of time travel and parallel universes. DC Comics used them to reboot their comics with Flashpoint while currently seeming to be going about a new Crisis on Infinite Earths (parallel universes); and Marvel is currently using parallel universes as the basis for the sprawling Spider-Verse event to bring every Spider-Man across dimensions for one mega story.

Yet in film, to date, X-Men: Days of Future Past is the only one to have tried one of these tropes— time travel. That would leave parallel universes as virgin territory for the superhero genre— which is why Sony ought to take it into serious consideration.

See, unlike rivals Marvel Studios and Warner Brothers- Sony does not boast a library of different superheroes enough to create a shared universe. It only owns the rights to Spider-Man and with their shoddy execution earlier this summer, nearly all ambitions to launch a shared universe fell flat on the ground. Their answer to create an event film like The Avengers and upcoming Justice League was to set up a Sinister Six team-up without considering a crucial factor:

Nobody is actually interested in a villain team-up.

(Personally, my only interest in the film thus far is that it is being written by Drew Goddard (The Cabin in the Woods). I’d rather Sony simply hand over the entire Spider-Man franchise to him instead)

To use a cliché proverb: you don’t bring a knife (Sony’s approach) to a gunfight (what Marvel and WB is doing).

So what’s a studio like Sony to do when faced with such a conundrum?

Easy: parallel universes.

With Spider-Man, it has always been clear that it is the man behind the mask that makes the Webslinger so popular. Peter Parker is a selfless good-hearted character that sets him apart from many of his peers. The other Peter Parkers or even other people to take up the Spider-Man mantle offer interesting stories of their own, each enough to launch franchises of their own.

And the top candidate for such a venture is Miles Morales.

In the Ultimate universe, Miles Morales is an African-Hispanic teenager gifted with spider powers who takes up the Spider-Man mantle after the Green Goblin killed Peter (although it seems that Peter actually survived but that’s a story for another day).

Andrew Garfield has openly spoken about passing the torch and a character like Miles Morales automatically makes it stand out from every superhero movie in the market featuring an all-white lead (also: please cast an ACTUAL TEENAGER and NOT a 30-year old trying to pass off as a teenager).

Another character that could work is Spider-Man 2099, Miguel O’Hara. Granted, he isn’t from a parallel universe (hint: he’s from the future) but it isn’t exactly a stretch creating a story that has O’Hara travelling back in time to assist Peter Parker deal with a multiverse threat.

Like an Ultimate Spider-Man movie, a Spider-Man film set in the future (nearly eighty years into the 21^st century) IMMEDIATELY sets itself apart. Spider-Man meets Minority Report? I know I’d want to watch that.

And if Sony is SERIOUSLY opting to be risky, the parallel universes option could be utilised to introduce… wait for it: Spider-Man: India.

Now, personally, I’m not wholly in favour of this idea but from a business point-of-view, Spider-Man: India could easily open up a whole new market in India. Today, everyone in Hollywood is fully aware that international markets are where the money is. Transformers: Age of Extinction may have crossed the billion-dollar box-office mark but a VERY large chunk of that profit is from foreign revenue. Domestic revenue, in contrast, was relatively poor. It’s why the film had a segment set in China (China is the biggest international film market today; India would probably be second). Similarly, X-Men: Days of Future Past cast Fan Bingbing, a popular singer in China, as the mutant, Blink, specifically to appeal to the Chinese market.

And India is a country that loves their movies, churning out more films than Hollywood does each year. A superhero film set in India based on a mega-popular American superhero? Listen closely and you can hear the money already falling into the bank.

TO BE CONTINUED…

What’s So Great About Spaced, Anyway?

  Clockwise: Julia Deakin, Nick Frost, Mark Heap, Katy Carmichael, Simon Pegg, Jessica Hynes

I started watching Spaced again a while back, an episode a day as a small (and my only) respite during preparation for exams. This must have been the fourth viewing or so I since first stumbling across it two years ago, and I am yet to find it to be stale or worn out, or worse: to stop being funny at all.

That Spaced has succeeded in staying as relevant and funny as it was when it first aired is no easy feat. After all, any comedy is best when it is new and fresh, for that is when it is capable of generating the loudest laughs, the jokes delivered with lightning-zest, jabs as powerful as Muhammad Ali’s in his prime. But just as even the best sportsman eventually loses the energy and stamina that propelled them to the top, so too to do most comedies, losing that initial lustre that turned it into such a hit. In both diverse instances, it is an affliction of the curse of time.

Spaced is a tale of two Londoners, Tim Bisley (Simon Pegg) and Daisy Steiner (Jessica Hynes neé Stevenson), who barely know each other but conspire to pose as a couple in order to get a flat. As any good sitcom will teach you, it must contain a premise that is simultaneously ridiculous and believable enough to be a ripe source for jokes. In this instance, it’s maintaining the charade to their landlady whilst everyone else is quite aware of the situation… until it all spills into the open humorously in the series’ penultimate episode.

The second element in any great sitcom is in dynamism of the cast and the interactions between their characters. Tim and Daisy share their lodgings with Brian (Mark Heap), an artist who employs… “unusual” (to say the least)… methods of painting his pictures. There is the eternally sozzled landlady, Marsha (Julia Deakin) and her unseen daughter, Amber. There’s Tim’s best friend, Mike (Nick Frost), so army- and war-obsessed he once tried to invade Paris with a tank. Then there’s Daisy’s best friend, Twist (Katy Carmichael), reportedly in fashion (plot twist: she works at a Laundromat). And later on, there’s a dog named Colin (Ada the Dog). Leading the charge of this explosively unstable heap of idiosyncratic characters is Tim and Daisy. Together, this eclectic grouping is highly charged, full of erroneous misunderstandings and even mismatched, yet they are bound together by a muddled sense of deep love and fondness for one another. Ultimately, this bunch of endearing eccentrics serves as the show’s heart.

Spaced is not your average sitcom. Ditching the standard multi-camera setup, recording in front of an audience for employment of a laugh track, it opted instead for a single-camera more visual-driven stylisation falling more in line with cable programmes churned out today than a television comedy. By doing so, Spaced didn’t merely stand out from the rest but seized a rarely utilised opportunity of using visuals as part of the gag or even as the gag. Spaced isn’t just packed with pop culture references— more often than not, it actually pays homage to them and contrary to quickly becoming tired and unoriginal in the way most parodying induces, it never manages to feel once that Spaced is relying solely on these references as the punch line; instead, it is part of the joke itself. You don’t need to understand the homage to laugh at the joke but when you do, the quip becomes twice as funny. In a famous instance, Tim— an avid Star Wars fan— expresses his dissatisfaction with The Phantom Menace by getting rid of his Star Wars merchandise by building a pyre and setting them on fire (unintentional rhyme!), a scene set entirely in the vein of Darth Vader’s funeral in Return of the Jedi.

And these pop culture references aren’t entirely restricted to a particular genre. I counted moments that paid homage not only to Star Wars, The Matrix, The Shining and the Sixth Sense but also to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Say Anything…, The Royle Family and The Omen. I even spotted a Doctor Who gag in the episode Change— the entrance to Tim’s boss’ office is framed on top by a TARDIS sign.

Not to say that everyone working on the show was not important but a large part of Spaced’s success owes thanks to the tight working between writers-and-stars Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes (neé Stevenson) and director Edgar Wright. The writing is sharp, crisp and times its jokes perfectly. Behind the camera, Edgar Wright’s visual aesthetic and fingerprints are plastered all over the series. His signature fast-moving whip pans and well-placed angles serve as a precursor to his work on the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy and Scott Pilgrim vs the World. Most directors in television are given little importance beyond getting the material filmed, forced to adhere to maintain a show’s established style. Here, Spaced depends a good deal on its director and it shows.

Spaced is comprised of a surprisingly short number of episodes— fourteen, to be exact, spread evenly over two series of seven. To understand the importance of how an order of episodes can impact the quality of a television show, one need only point out at the slow downhill slide of How I Met Your Mother, a show that (clearly!) started off as a Friends-esque sitcom before quickly growing into its own quirky beloved niche until the dragging of the titular meeting stretched on for too long (nine years) over twenty-odd episodes annually. If the last few years had a reduced number of episodes, combined with removing of unnecessary material serving as filler, perhaps the series’ finale wouldn’t have gone down as the show’s most divisive episode ever.

Spaced, on the other hand, operated as if it had always been destined for a brief albeit spectacular lifespan and managed to make every second, frame and joke count. In some ways, it felt like a very long Extended Edition of a movie.

Every now and then, a comedy (irrespective of medium) comes along that remains vibrant as the day it debuted. One such gem is the Charlie Chaplin classic, City Lights, one of the last silent films to be made that is still funny and moving as ever. For a more modern choice and in television, I would select Friends— it might not exactly be the best sitcom according to critics and Best Comedy-lists but it certainly boasts a far better universal appeal thanks to a timeless bravura mix of jokes, riotous characters and a cast that felt like a real family. Spaced aired at the end of the twentieth century in 1999 and 2001 and even fifteen years later, I can confidently say that Spaced deservedly belongs in the Club of Exclusive Exceptional. Perhaps even its own room named after it. It has wholly earned that prestige.

In the final episode of Spaced, a running theme is— and I quote— “They say the family of the twenty-first century is made up of friends, not relatives”. And you know what? This is one family I wouldn’t mind being a part of.

Five Reasons Why Mary Jane Watson Is Amazing

Women don’t get a lot of love in comicbooks unless they have powers and dress up in a tight-fitting revealing costume. If they possess neither, their duties most often include the need to be rescued constantly or in a worst-case scenario end up dead to cause mental agony and pain to the hero (check up what happened to Green Lantern Kyle Rayner’s girlfriend to see what I mean).

Yet when done right, they succeed in being pivotal and important characters on their own terms. Hence, the women in the world of Spider-Man are just as vital as the titular hero. Ol’ Web Head has quite the list of ladies: Black Cat/Felicia Hardy, Betty Brant and Carlie Cooper, to name a few. But none have been more popular than Gwen Stacy and Mary Jane Watson.

Comparatively, Mary Jane Watson has been in the spotlight more than Gwen Stacy, thanks to the prominence given to her in adaptations.

Sam Raimi’s trilogy always focused on MJ (do you mind if I call Mary Jane Watson “MJ”? It saves time typing) while Gwen Stacy, played by Bryce Dallas Howard, was more-or-less shoehorned in a minor capacity in Spider-Man 3 (2007).

Lately, though, Gwen Stacy has been enjoying an upsurge in popularity thanks to Emma Stone’s performances in the rebooted films. Not only did Stone imbue Gwen with some serious lovable charm and smarts but her active involvement in helping costumed boyfriend with pesky villains helped make her one of the films’ best components instead of functioning as an obligatory ‘damsel-in-distress’. Revolutionary, right?

Except Mary Jane had been doing the same for years in the comics.

There is a lot of love for Sam Raimi’s work over the reboot. I love those films, too. The first two, at any rate. But for the mere sake of nostalgia, I will not deny that the trilogy wasn’t without its faults and the biggest complaint I had was with the depiction of Mary Jane Watson. I do not blame Kirsten Dunst— after all, actors and actresses have to simply make the best with the scripts given to them. But I hated the way the character was portrayed. Not that it’s much better across other media— the Spider-Man PlayStation game, for instance, committed the same cardinal ‘damsel-in-distress’ sin. Instead of the cool, fun girl from the comics, we got a soap-operatic, whiny excuse of a MJ. Such a travesty! What many people may not realise is in the source material, MJ was always a downright bad-ass, again and again and again and Peter has admitted many times that she was one of the strongest women he knew. From the time she was with Peter, she was a massively important centre in the comics. Which is why I want to tear my hair over after in The Superior Spider-Man #31 last month, she made it clear that she was done with Peter (then again, nothing is permanent in comics, so fingers crossed). Thanks a lot for One More Day, Marvel, that’s the outcome of such a stupid editorial decision. Dweebs.

So without further ado, let me present five instances throughout the history of Spider-Man, in no particular order, in which Mary Jane Watson demonstrated that she was completely amazing and at times, a real bad ass.

1)     The time she attacked a Spider-Slayer in Pittsburgh with a baseball bat to save Peter

Events in The Amazing Spider-Man issues #290-292 turned out to be game-changers for Spider-Man lore to come. At the end of #290, Peter proposed to MJ (the second time he’d done so) only to be turned down again. In the next two issues, MJ leaves for Pittsburgh to take care of family matters but later calls Peter and asks him to come and help her. Peter flies out to join her, unaware that Alistair Smythe is tracking him with his Spider-Slayer. Long story short: Spider-Man and Smythe engage in battle which Smythe nearly won if MJ hadn’t grabbed a baseball bat from a nearby kid and hit the Spider-Slayer!

Sounds like a dumb move, right? Except it was all a ploy to buy Peter the few crucial seconds he needed to recover… although his response to seeing Smythe almost kill MJ was to tear the Spider-Slayer to pieces and threaten Smythe with the same treatment if he tried to harm anyone again. Seriously— that bit of courage requires serious cojones to pull off without being paralysed with fear.

2)     The time Mary Jane turned her horrible father in to law enforcement to bail her sister out

While Spider-Slayer in Pittsburgh took central attention in #291-292, the reason MJ was in that town was a family conflict. Her father, Phillip, had convinced MJ’s sister, Gayle, to steal a rare manuscript for him to sell on the black market. Gayle got caught and Phillip wanted MJ to find the paper and bring to him. She ended up aiding her father, much to Peter’s uneasiness despite promising to support her decision no matter what. After the battle, MJ hands in the script, only for her father to get arrested for the crime. The move took even Peter by surprise. In the end, Gayle was released and reunited with her children and estranged sister. The real happy ending, though, is all this made MJ change her mind about Peter’s proposal and she agreed to marry him. And the rest, as they say, is history.

3)     Escaping the devious clutches of her obsessed landlord and admirer entirely through her own efforts and saving Spider-Man from death… again!

David Michelinie’s and Todd McFarlane’s run on the series as writer and artist respectively yielded two beautiful outcomes: the introduction of fan-favourite anti-hero/villain Venom and the dark disturbing storyline in which Mary Jane is kidnapped by her obsessive admirer and landlord, Jonathan Caesar. The event is notable for being downright unsettling in that the antagonist succeeded in hitting Peter where it hurt most and he wasn’t even a major villain! Pushed to the brink of despair, Spider-Man resorts to beating up every criminal he comes across in New York in his frantic need for information. Caesar hires two criminals, Styx and Stone, to kill him and by #309, it all boils down to a hair-raising climax in which Spider-Man is nearly killed in Central Park and saved at the last second by none other than MJ.

Wait, but wasn’t she imprisoned until then?

Certainly. Until the sight of Styx (the guy can kill anything just by touching it!) prompts her into action. MJ initially tries to dispatch Caesar by applying a lamp socket to a puddle of water he is standing in. When that doesn’t work, she simply smashes the lamp in his face… and succeeds in electrocuting the goons instead. MJ immediately tracks her husband down and shoots Styx as he’s about to destroy Peter.

Bottom line: in the direst circumstances, MJ triumphantly overcame them and not only prevailed but saved Peter as well— all without powers, too. Damsel in distress? Pah! More like Heroine of the Hour!

4)     Evading capture by the Green Goblin during the events of ‘Goblin Nation’

In the final story arc of The Superior Spider-Man, Norman Osborn had emerged from the shadows he’d been hiding in all the time and unleashed his army on New York. Part of his plan to destroy Spider-Man (and Otto Octavius, consequently) was to kidnap the people the webslinger cared about. One such target included Mary Jane.

Big mistake. When the Goblin’s minions (literally kids in Goblin outfits) crashed her apartment, MJ didn’t sit around screaming. Nope! She got out Peter’s old webshooters and webbed those mini-Goblins to the wall and with her boyfriend, collected Aunt May and Jameson Sr and took them to safety! The moment she deals with the little Goblins is simply spectacular! No chance the next screen incarnation of Mary Jane would do something like this, is there? Also, there’s a possibility that Green Goblin realised he may have bitten off more than he could chew when concerning Ms Watson.

5)     Everything about One More Day

Writing about this actually hurts because I was forced to read One More Day to better acquaint myself with the events. Reading it made me physically nauseous. The story essentially wiped out Peter’s and MJ’s marriage in a few pages with such ease and little effort that it is nothing more than the WORST possible way to indirectly reboot a series, retcon history and function as a deus ex machina! I abhor book burnings of any sort, but I wouldn’t hesitate throwing this to such a pile!

So why does this make MJ such a strong person? Simple. She agreed to go through with the whole thing.

Despite how overall crappy this is, the moments before which Memphisto (Marvel’s version of the Devil) realigns time end up being some of the most gut-punching scenes drawn and written. As a Spider-Man fan, reading those sections felt as if a part of me did die. It honestly hurt and it is little wonder that the Spider-Man community was pissed off. Ultimately, through MJ’s visibly difficult yet selfless decision, she enabled the world to forget Spider-Man’s identity and prevent Aunt May from ever getting shot. But the price paid was simply too much and even though it has been seven years gone, the injustice and the pain of it all still rankles.

 *

And there you have it! Do you know of any other moments that made Mary Jane Watson memorable? If so, leave them in the comments below!

How To Recognise a Disney Villain

Note: this was originally supposed to be The Snarky Quill’s first post but somehow, it kept getting pushed back until now. Don’t ask me why. It just did.

Disney is a word synonymous with many people’s childhoods in different parts of the world largely in part to the revolution of VCR, VCD and DVD. While Disney had been around as far back as 1938, it can be argued that the Mouse House company regained both its footing and dominance in the very animation industry it had helped revolutionise with a Second Renaissance in the final decade of the twentieth century. The creative spark burst into flame with The Little Mermaid and died around with Tarzan. That’s not to say it’s completely dead— it has enjoyed yet another resurgence that triumphed in 2013 with the rabid success of Frozen, culminating a total gross of over a billion dollars and a recent win for Best Animated Feature at the 86^th Academy Awards.

A film isn’t different from a meal. Both require various ingredients to be skillfully and artfully brought together in a concoction that would be unimaginable without the contributions. Disney’s animated features tend to follow a standard recipe that is changed and modified to a certain degree to suit the film without too much deviation to make it unrecognisable. What ingredients, I hear you ask from across the screens that separate us? Oh, it’s easy: catchy musical numbers, a good-looking (white) hero and heroine, the mandatory sidekick usually voiced by a famous person and… the villain.

If you were to put these bad people on a spectrum… you might find that they tend to share some commonalities that make them a classic Disney villain.

1.      Red/Black/Purple coloured attires

The dress code in invitations sent to Disney antagonists: “The theme is either black, red or purple.”

Maybe it’s part of some unspoken code in The Villain’s Bible or How To Be Evil 101 (a popular favourite with the bad guys of today) but the Colour Triad of Black, Red and Purple— black, namely— has remained an inexplicable standard of popular fashion choice for Disney villains. Don’t believe me? Take a look for yourself.

Costumes designed by Ralph Lauren

I get it: with most of the running time devoted to song-and-dance sequences, only a limited amount of screen time is given over to the evil doers. Clothes symbolizing characters’ natures aren’t novel and the use has been around for centuries. Disney villains, on the other hand, can be classified as either: (a) black- malevolent and brooding (b) red- flamboyant (c) purple- in pursuit of getting grandiosely drunk with power and being the alpha of whatever. If you scrutinise each villain’s nature with their choice of fashion, you’d start to notice the parallels. The rule, of course, doesn’t always apply. But I bet you’d be hard-pressed to find a Disney villain in other colours which the heroes haven’t taken.

2. Cool sidekicks

Everyone in a Disney film needs a sidekick to stop us from waking up to realise how empty the stories can be. Their primary purpose is comic relief and yet they tend to be the best marketable merchandising characters for children. When they side with the heroes, they. When they side with the villains, they provide moral support, encouragement, humour and sing catchy songs… and give the villain someone to conspire with in secrecy. Though these sidekicks are meant to be one-note (as is the fate of most Disney characters), some tend to display more depth to them than would be expected. The most prominent example actually takes place in a direct-to-video sequel (sadly enough) in which Jafar’s parrot, Iago, attempts with the greatest difficulty to prove his loyalty to Aladdin— a task not made any easier when Jafar returns in… The Return of Jafar.

“I know you love me. Yes, you do!”

3.  The traits of smooth and cool villainy

After the sidekick, you know who the coolest character is? If you guessed “the villain”, you earn a prize of self-congratulations and the imagining of me giving you a proud pat on the back.

Pardon the cliché: but every story does need a great bad guy. The eccentric flamboyant ones are all the more charming and glib to the audience it is performing before (I can’t speak for the others but I loved the villains and wasn’t the least frightened of them). Smooth-talking antagonists laced with evil are still trending even today— one look at the popularity of Loki in The Avengers or Moriarty in BBC’s modern interpretation Sherlock is all it takes to confirm this. The guys admire their tenacity and debonair Machiavellianism and girls simply go crazy for them. They are ultimately the sort of people you’d invite to a party if only for the sole reason that they capture your attention more than the oft-vanilla yet handsome hero. I say the hero is good-looking in comparison as the Disney antagonists are slightly off-degree in the looks department.

“I make evil look gooood!”

And yet, despite all that…

4. Disney villains are single

“Why will you not get with this?!”

Ain’t no rest for the wicked and no time for courtships! When was the last time a Disney villain started off the story a) married or at least b) in a relationship? Certainly, all the world domination/evil plans getting in the way of libido being put to good use but it’s a crafty lesson in teaching children that evil never gets laid— which promptly confuses hormone-raging teenagers in later years to question why the girl of their dreams is perpetually interested only in the aloof bad boy archetype instead of a nice guy like him.